August 10, 1943 -- January 12, 2022
Incidentally,
welcome to the final month of 2021
Pretty ordinary
looking handgun for a price tag of fourteen or fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars.
Right?
Is it worth that
kind of money?
Time will tell,
I suppose.
It is a Sig
Sauer 220R5 Legion-SAO semi-automatic pistol in 10 mm caliber. It arrived
Saturday to keep company with the Sig Sauer 716i semi-automatic rifle in .308
/ 7.62 mm caliber which made its appearance here a few weeks ago. One sig
deserves another, someone once told me, and I took it literally.
You might recall
that the rifle is the first AR type I have owned. The pistol is in sort of the
same category. Like many, I am an aficionado of the John Browning's Model 1911
in .45 caliber, but I have wanted a 10 mm for a few years and decided the time
of wanting and waiting must come to an end.
For most
practical purposes, this Sig is a 1911 in disguise since it very much looks
like and has the feel of and functions in a similar fashion to a 1911.
Returning to the
economics of this "masterpiece," there is an oft-repeated question about the worth of
a particular thing in terms of coin of the realm .... a particular vehicle; a
particular painting; a particular piece of property? My usual answer is to the
effect that the worth of something is whatever someone will pay for it.
More
specifically, most people, if they were to hold this particular handgun and
examine it closely, probably would fall into one of three camps: Those
unfamiliar with pistols and think $1500 was a typical price; those unfamiliar
with guns who would be flabbergasted at the amount of money; those familiar
with firearms who would "fondle" it while thoroughly inspecting it and after a
few minutes say it is worth every cent of $1500 -- especially when compared to
other guns on the market.
For those among
you who object to firearms, you can reasonably assume this will be my last
entry about one for a long/long/long while ....
As for the music
accompanying this post, there may not be something for everyone, which never is
the intent, rather, the idea is to make suggestions from "stuff" I enjoy and
which usually has a link, obvious or subtle, to the words and the
illustration ....
Be happy .... be obliged ....
This post began
with reading a Thanksgiving article in last Sunday's edition of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press
under the headline, "What first-graders are thankful for in 2021." Mostly, the
kids "seem to appreciate people who spend time with them."
Me, too ....
The most-used words from the kids were, in descending order: "family, mom, love, friends,
God, dad, school, play and food."
With a few modifications, those could be on my list, too. So, I asked myself, what am I thankful for in 2021?
My own "dumb
luck" probably envelopes my appreciation of my existence in the sense of thankfulness: For being
born into the family I was; in the country, region and town I was; at the time in a
historical context I was. On a scale of having had a "charmed life," I would
give mine a "B" or a seven.
On my blog, I
frequently refer to myself as Fram the Fortunate and use "Old Norse" references
such as "gold-luck" and "woman-luck" and "health-luck" and "weather-luck" to
describe the road I have walked. I have had two terrific wives and have three cool
kids. There is nothing more beautiful than a blue sky with billowy clouds and nothing
more wonderful than a nap in a meadow on a sunny, breezy afternoon.
Although I am a devotee of "Bitter (Ambrose) Bierce" and skeptical about many things, I am
essentially glad to be alive and to experience so much of life and living. What else is there to do with life other than to appreciate / to study / to learn from it?
Returning to art and artists, my thankfulness comes in the form of being able to enjoy the paintings of individuals like Monet and Vasnetsov and Caravaggio / sculpture by Michelangelo and Rodin / books from Homer and Hemingway and Durant / music by Bach and Mercury .... well, you get my drift .... be happy .... be thankful, baby ....
